Oversaw building of FBI Academy
Harold “Hal” Light, 86, a retired FBI special agent who oversaw construction of the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va., died Dec. 18 of complications from cancer surgery and a stroke at a hospital in Newark, Del.
Light was the agent picked by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1968 to manage the extradition of James Earl Ray to the United States from London, where he had been arrested in the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
On his trip to London, Light carried an international warrant signed by President Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk authorizing him and two other agents to take charge of Ray. He said he was worried about riots when he returned with Ray to Memphis, Tenn., but the arrival was uneventful.
Born in Plainfield, Ind., on Jan. 20, 1921, Light grew up in Indianapolis and graduated from Butler University.
He served in the Army during World War II and was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone.
He joined the FBI in 1948, working in several field offices before being assigned in 1956 to the Washington, D.C., area, where he was initially a firearms instructor.
Appointed special agent in charge of the FBI Academy, he was responsible for supervising the design and construction of the new facility at Quantico.
Work began in the late 1960s and the academy was dedicated in 1972, the year Light retired from the bureau.
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